Poised & Ready

"Stop, police!"

He spun in the dark shadows behind the grocery store and feverishly ran from the voice. Tripping over a curb, he regained his balance as he hit the wooden fence. Splinters stabbed into his hand as he scrambled over the top and dropped hard on the other side.  Involuntarily, his legs sprinted as his brain, panic stricken from the officer's sudden appearance, wondered what he had done.


He ran.  Fueled by fear of being captured on his warrants, he kept running until the flickering red and blue lights from the police car stopped dancing in the treetops.  He no longer heard the officer or the police radio barking into the still night air and slowed until crouching beside a shrub.  Panting hard, he focused on calming his breathing while evaluating the neighborhood.

His eyes scanned the street lights, porch lights and lights from windows that might make him visible. Most windows were dark except for the blue glow from people probably sleeping while in front of large television sets. 

He continued to scan the area and wanted to cover more ground.  Distance was his friend.  He began to move, cat-like, across yards.  He focused on finding the short chain link fencing that he could nearly straddle to get over instead of the six foot tall wooden fences that loaded his palms and inner thighs with splinters.

One by one, he steadily scampered across yards, hopped another fence and moved on.

They'll never catch me...

The neighborhood was quiet. Being in the middle of the night, no cars were heard or seen moving along the residential streets as he stopped in the shadows to look in all directions before cutting across.

I'm like a fucking ninja, he chuckled to himself as he continued to cover more ground.

Through an open gate, he entered another yard and proceeded to cross more short chain link fences.  While straddling yet another fence, suddenly he was blinded by bright light.  He immediately looked up, but only felt like he was looking into the sun.

"Police! Stop! Show me your hands!" echoed between the houses from a voice concealed behind the white light.

Shit! Where'd he come from?! He took off again with renewed energy.  Chain link or wooden fences did not matter as he blasted over them as fast as possible. 

He wished for more endurance, but recognized he needed to hide. Exhausted, he clambered over yet another wooden fence and plopped down underneath a boat that was on a trailer. The cement was cool on is belly as he layed under the boat and rested his sweaty forehead on his forearms.

His ears strained for any noise.  Five minutes went by, then ten, then twenty, then thirty. Summertime crickets and the distant hum from far away traffic were the only sounds. The more time that elapsed, the better he felt about his freedom.

What's that? he asked himself as he cocked his head with ears straining for the slightest sound.

Somewhere over the fence and out on the street, a faint sound of distant labored breathing could be heard.  It was hoarse and sounded constricted, as if the creature making the noise was being slightly choked. The sound steadily grew louder. And louder. And louder until claws were raking up the fence and a beast landed with a thud on his side of the fence.

Voices were suddenly heard, but he did not lsten as the police K9 strained hard against a long leash that was zipping over the top of the fence.

He remained motionless as the dark shadow stayed along the garage's exterior brick wall. He wanted to scream!  But, he was desperate not to be captured as he hoped, and prayed, they would all leave.

Toenails scratched hard on the cement seeking traction as the dog spun. He tucked his head hard onto his forearms, bracing himself for whatever was about to happen as the dog had target locked onto him.

Time stopped, and almost felt surreal. 

He felt the impact, but it took a second to process what was happening.  He felt his body being dragged across the rough surfaced cement while being extracted from under the boat.  His arms and legs flailed and then he realized, much to his horror, exactly what was going on. 

Top canine teeth were sunk back on the top of his head while the lower canine teeth were near his eyebrows.  The powerful jaws held his head like a pecan in a nutcracker.  There was no fighting the dog.  It was simply too powerful and it was in complete control as he was yanked clear from being underneath the boat.

His only view was looking straight down at the cement.  Rolling his eyes upward, he could see the dog's front feet bracing against the ground while tugging in reverse.  Suddenly, and thankfully, a pair of badly scuffed, well worn black boots were noticed facing him as if the handler was straddling the dog.

"Get him off!  Get him the fuck off!!" he screamed in terror as he raised himself to his knees.

He heard voices, but they were inaudible as he feared for his life. The dog remained clamped to his head as he tried to stand. He wasn't sure why he wanted to stand, but later guessed it was simply a survival instinct.

As he raised up, he noticed the dog's front paws also leave the ground. Then he heard the sound of Velcro separating and momentarily wondered what caused the peculiar noise.  Time again slowed.  He realized as he tried to stand, the dog's top canines were peeling his scalp from his skull.

"Get on the ground!" was a distant, muffled sound from the officers.

Suddenly, all the tension from the dog's bite immediately released as he dropped to the ground.  Warm sticky fluid pooled around him as blood bathed the area of his injury. 

He was scared.

"Am I going to die?" he asked the officers while he heard one radio for an ambulance.

"It doesn't look good," was the only answer he heard despite having a dream-like conversation with them.

Like an out of body experience, he watched himself apologize to them and comment about the K9 being so talented.  Weirdly, he happily noticed, despite being an ugly injury, the torn scalp was a large flap still attached near his forehead that he assumed would be stitched back in place. He kept glancing at the street, eagerly checking for the ambulance and was so grateful when it arrived.

The contract paramedics looked at him, and then each other, dumbfounded with what they saw.  Being literally minutes from the hospital, they opted to quickly mummy wrap his head with rolls and rolls of gauze.  At least it covered things up and staunched the blood flow while they held his hands to guide him into the idling ambulance.

Meanwhile, poised and ready, the K9 watched his every move--he knew his job and stoically sat and observed.